Crane I. S.D. Considering Teacher Housing to Draw In New Hires

CRANE - The Crane school district is trying to get more teachers, but there's a big roadblock standing in their way.

In such a small community, there's no where for the teachers to live.

It's an issue that's causing the district to lose potential new hires. The superintendent told NewsWest 9 it's hard enough to get someone interested in coming to the Basin, let alone Crane.

But the district is looking into the idea of teacher housing to attract new hires.

"Most apartments in our area are getting $1200 a month and that's really difficult especially for a beginning teacher and the salaries they pull," Superintendent Larry Lee said.

But in Crane the problem goes a little deeper.

"There's no rent property at all," Lee said. "We've got 12-15 people working for us that live in Odessa and Midland."

Lee said the housing shortage is directly affecting the district and their search for new teachers.

"A lot of times we lose out on applicants just because there's not a place to live," Lee said.

School officials are looking to possibly change that.

The district is considering teacher housing as a way to bring educators to the area.

"You've gotta make a commitment to come out here and the more things we can do to attract people to our area, we certainly wanna try to do that," Lee said. "Normally if we can get someone to see us, they'll stay with us."

Talks for a possible project are only in the early stages but Lee said the idea is to offer transitional housing.

"Preliminary discussions have been around small units," he said.

The district's next step is finding available land.

"There's some lots and some acreage that we've looked at that are close to town and we think are close to utilities," Lee said. "One of the things you worry about more than anything is being able to do it for a reasonable price and utilities are a big part of that."